CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta will interview actor and philanthropist Michael J. Fox in-depth about his experience with Parkinson’s disease and his foundation’s decision to fund a five-year, landmark clinical study to identify biomarkers of the disease’s progression.

The formal announcement of Mr. Fox’s funding of the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) will be made at the Second World Parkinson’s Congress in Glasgow, Scotland, on Friday, Oct. 1.

PPMI is expected to enroll 600 patients at 18 sites in the U.S. and Europe; the initiative will also establish an international database of the findings, which will become an invaluable “knowledge bank” – assisting researchers and clinicians working to solve the mystery of how the condition progresses. Identifying biomarkers unique to Parkinson’s disease will help researchers develop better treatments. Mr. Fox’s foundation has funded nearly $200 million in Parkinson’s disease research. With this latest research commitment, Mr. Fox will also encourage patients suffering with Parkinson’s to enroll in the PPMI study.

On Friday, Oct. 1, Dr. Gupta introduces viewers to a medical researcher working to identify and understand other challenging diseases, and patients who come to his medical team for help. Dr. William Gahl, director of the Undiagnosed Diseases Division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) leads an elite group of clinical doctors and medical researchers who focus their vast expertise on diagnosing and treating conditions that medical science does not yet understand. Like the fictional doctors of the network medical drama House, this real-life team of experts is a source of last hope for patients with mysterious diseases. Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports – Doctor Detectives debuts at 8:00pm ET on Friday, Oct. 1.